Telephone call processing and switching systems of many types are known in the art. Such systems are used in telemarketing operations, telephone-based information systems, financial and insurance service operations, and public service centers, to name but a few examples. Automated or semi-automated call centers are examples of such systems, including functional features such as automatic call distributors (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR or VRU) systems, coordinated voice and data delivery, and outdial applications.
For example, telemarketing is a well-known form of remote commerce, that is commerce wherein the person making the sale or taking the sales data is not in the actual physical presence of the potential purchaser or customer. In general operation, a customer may call a toll-free telephone number, such as an 800 number. The number dialed is determined by the carrier as being associated with the telemarketer, and the call is delivered to the telemarketer's call center. A typical call center will have a front end with one or more VRU units, call switching equipment, an ACD, and several work stations having a telephone and computer terminal at which a live operator processes the call. The dialed number, typically taken automatically from the carrier through use of the dialed number identification service (DNIS), is utilized to effect a database access resulting in a “screen pop” of a script on the operator's computer terminal utilizing a computer telephone integration (CTI) network. In this way, when a prospective purchaser calls a given telephone number, a telemarketing operator may immediately respond with a script keyed to the goods or services offered. The response may be at various levels of specificity, ranging from a proffer of a single product, e.g., a particular audio recording, or may be for various categories of goods or services, e.g., where the dialed number is responded to on behalf of an entire supplier. Alternatively, the call center may utilize an outdial application that dials phone numbers of customers in an automated fashion, and connects the dialed customer with an agent. To this end, the outdial application may interface with a database of telephone numbers from which phone numbers to be dialed are retrieved.
One disadvantage of call centers known to the art is that no automated mechanisms for determining agent availability for use in conjunction with an outdial application are known. Thus, contemporary call centers may attempt to over-utilize the capacity by placing calls when no agent is immediately available, or may alternatively under-utilize the call center capacity by entering an idle state when agents are available to take a call.
Therefore, what is needed is a mechanism that overcomes the described problems and limitations.